In the art of processing fruit and the like in commercial quantities at high rates using machines, it is extremely important to employ holder assemblies which do not damage appreciably the individual pieces or items undergoing processing. In addition, holder assemblies which center, locate and even align individual pieces are much desired. Also, holder assemblies must be adapted for incorporation into gangs or the like for apparatus wherein a number of individual fruit pieces are each undergoing simultaneously individual or sequential processing steps. Further, holder assemblies must be simple, reliable, economical to fabricate and to operate, easy to maintain, and safe to load (if hand loading is contemplated).
Food machinery manufacturers have heretofore generally not been successful in making holder assemblies which solved all of these problems and needs. In effect, the human hand as a fruit holder, guided by a human brain, is a very difficult assembly to replace, yet the force of contemporary circumstances, particularly zooming labor costs, provides a most powerful incentive to such manufacturers to make commercially practical substitutes therefor for use in food processing machinery.